Watchmen Episode 1 Easter Eggs Explained

| Oct 24, 2019 |

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This article contains nothing just spoilers for the first episode of HBO's Watchmen. Nosotros have a completely spoiler free review correct hither.

HBO's Watchmen is a sequel to the classic comic book story past Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. That's right, it'southward a sequel, not an adaptation of the original work. And yes, you'll note that nosotros said it's a sequel to the book and not Zack Snyder'due south movie, which was faithful to the broad strokes of the volume save for a scattering of details.

While Watchmen isn't the near sprawling superhero universe in comics by whatever stretch, information technology's one rich in comic book mythology, commenting on the superhero genre as a whole while engaging in some incredibly detailed worldbuilding. HBO'southward Watchmen moves the story from 1985 to 2019, offers echoes of the comic that inspired information technology whenever and wherever possible, and has hints that more familiar Watchmen characters could appear in the near future. These are compiled both from our own observations and secrets gleaned from HBO's "Peteypedia" supplemental materials for the testify.

Hither'south everything we caught in the first episode. Let us know what we missed either downwards in the comments or on Twitter, and we'll keep this updated.

The Tulsa Massacre and Bass Reeves

– The episode is chosen "It's Summertime and We're Running Out of Ice," a line from "Poor Jud is Daid" from Rodgers and Hammerstein'due south Oklahoma! .

– The episode opens on a moment from history that seems like it should exist fiction, merely it wasn't. The Blackness Wall Street Massacre of 1921 took place in Tulsa from May 31 to June 1 and killed hundreds of African-Americans. "When I offset heard about the massacre of Black Wall Street in Tulsa of '21 I couldn't believe that I was a grown adult and I'd never ever heard about information technology before," Watchmen executive producer and writer Damon Lindelof tells us. "And the more than I researched information technology, the more I was just shocked and embarrassed that I didn't know anything."

Even the moments in this that seem like they might be "amplified" for this show, such as planes dropping dynamite on black businesses, are from the historical record. We have more than info on that hither.

– The hero of the silent film (which is chosen Trust in the Law! ) the immature boy is watching is Bass Reeves, a real historical figure who was the first deputy blackness marshall of America'southward west. He notched over 3,000 arrests in his lifetime, and HBO announced a few years back that they were developing a miniseries based on his life.

Interestingly, Bass Reeves in his "disguise" hither looks quite a fleck like Hooded Justice from the Minutemen. We run into Hooded Justice afterwards in the episode equally part of the "American Hero Story: Minutemen" advertisements, a documentary series about the original masked adventurers in the Watchmen world.

– The Reeves of the argent screen tells the angry lynch mob that there volition be "no mob justice today, trust in the police force." This echoes the concerns about masked vigilantes that led to the passing of the Keene Human activity in the Watchmen world in 1977, where a police force strike led to the outlawing of superheroic action. But it as well echoes the themes of this show, where law are now sanctioned to wear masks and keep secret identities. Besides, it may be coincidental, but in Superman #1 (1939) ane of the Human of Steel's very first acts is to bust upwardly a lynch mob who take broken into a prison.

– The young boy being sent away as Black Wall Street is being destroyed experience quite a chip like Jor-El and Lara sending young Kal-El away from Krypton in the Superman mythos. In some versions of that story, Jor-El intended for the rocket that carries Kal-El to World to also hold Lara, but there was but room for the baby. Even the "look after this boy" note feels like a particular version of the Superman origin story, Elliot S! Maggin'due south Superman: Last Son of Krypton , where Jor-El sent a telepathic device to explicate to potential foster parents the importance of the child they would notice. This was no accident.

"The other thing about what happened in Tulsa '21, it felt like it was very like to what the mode that a lot of superhero stories or comic book storytelling starts, which is information technology's the devastation of the world that yous know," Lindelof says. "This felt a lot like Krypton or Bruce Wayne losing his parents. So to take an actual real globe historical event and use that iconic sort of mythological comic book storytelling at the same time…considering if y'all're giving an audience vegetables, they'll push them to the side of the plate. It has to feel like it's as delicious as the rest of the meal. And more importantly, I think the more that the season goes on, more than pivotal we'll see Tulsa '21 was to our storytelling."

Oklahoma!

– When nosotros arrive in the nowadays twenty-four hours, you lot can run into the truck commuter is driving an electrical vehicle. While hybrid and electric cars are no longer the stuff of science fiction in our earth, in Watchmen , they were commonplace equally early (if not earlier) than 1985, thanks in part to scientific advances brought on by the inflow of Dr. Manhattan.

– Watchmen stories e'er seem to take place in the fall, and this one begins on Sept. 8. The original comic takes place in the month of October. DC Comics' print sequel, Doomsday Clock , takes identify in November.

– The "good guy" lawman getting "bad news" while attending a theater production is a mutual trope in both regular law enforcement and superheroic comic book storytelling. You lot could easily see this scene playing out the same way if Don Johnson was playing, say, Dick Tracy for case.

I'm unfortunately not equally fluent in the works of Rodgers and Hammerstein as I am in Moore and Gibbons, so about of the Oklahoma! significance is lost on me at the moment. Feel gratis to offer your own analysis in the comments.

– The concept of police keeping secret identities and wearing masks is explored throughout this show, but it'southward a notable shift in policy from the comic book, where masked vigilantes were outlawed by the Keene Deed, passed in 1977 subsequently a police strike and tearing riots. Later in the episode you can hear well-nigh Senator Joe Keene, Jr. during a radio broadcast, who we'll meet more of in hereafter episodes.

– When you see Regina Male monarch's Angela Abar corking eggs in the classroom, i of the yolks has blood in information technology, at roughly the same bending as the bloodstain blueprint on the Comedian's bluecoat in the comic book. The yolks also briefly make a smiley face that recalls that aforementioned Comedian badge.

President Robert Redford

– In the classroom, you can see photos of four important Presidents to this globe: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Richard Nixon (who in the world of Watchmen , not but never resigned in disgrace, but served multiple terms, well into the 1980s), and current President Robert Redford.

Redford'due south candidacy for President was hinted at the terminate of the original comic, as someone who was likely to challenge Nixon in the upcoming election. In Doomsday Clock , which begins in 1992, he is already in part, and he's even so serving in the 2019 of HBO's Watchmen . He's currently in his 7th term, and apparently volition not seek an eighth.

Squid Rain

The "squid showers" everyone periodically endures appear to exist an later effect of Adrian Veidt'due south 1000 plan to avert nuclear Armageddon in the original Watchmen , in which he genetically engineered a psychic entity to simulate an alien set on and thus unite the globe's governments against a perceived common threat. The fact that squid showers are taking place confirms that this is a sequel to the book and non the squid-less 2009 pic version of the story. These have apparently been going in since the original incident in 1985 (and it turns out the behemothic squid from the terminate of the book also "evaporated" shortly afterward its arrival, as these fetal squid do on the show). Every bit a result, there are public servants devoted to cleaning them upward, squid anatomy posters to be in classrooms, and people to be formulating conspiracy theories well-nigh them in the press.

We explained the signficance of the squid rain in much more than item hither.

And while we're on the discipline of Adrian Veidt…

Adrian Veidt?

– Despite a paper headline that says "Veidt Declared Expressionless" it sure does appear that the mysterious "Lord of a Land Manor" played past Jeremy Irons is Adrian Veidt, doesn't it? The colors he wears echo Veidt'due south Ozymandias costume, and he seems to exist the appropriate historic period that Veidt would be in 2019. Veidt has been missing in this world for seven years, according to HBO's official supplemental materials for the testify, which present the above newspaper article in full. It's worth pointing out that in DC's Doomsday Clock , Veidt departs the Watchmen reality for the DC Universe in 1992 in an attempt to find Dr. Manhattan.

– Veidt…ahem, I mean "the mysterious admirer played by Jeremy Irons" is working on a play for his servants, "The Watchmaker'due south Son." That tin only be a reference to Jon Osterman, better known by his glowing blue naked form equally Dr. Manhattan. Osterman was indeed the son of a watchmaker.

This may not exist important to anything, but in the background of the mysterious gentleman's dining room is a Spartan war helmet. Veidt always did love aboriginal civilizations…

Sister Night and the Police

– Detective Angela Abar is Sister Night, personifying the idea that police in this earth at present must hide their regular lives backside, not merely masks, merely superheroic identities. And no, your eyes practice not deceive you, this badass superhero's expect appears to be based on a nun. Why a nun? The Watchmen team ain't maxim but nonetheless. Watchmen executive producer and director Nicole Kassell promises us that "you volition acquire that every bit you keep to scout… information technology'due south not going to remain a mystery."

We accept more than info on Regina Rex'south Sister Nighttime right hither.

Latest Comic reviews

– Other supercops include those with the equally on-the-nose codenames of Pirate Jenny and Ruddy Scare. Pirate Jenny is a nod to how in the Watchmen universe, comic book superheroes never really defenseless on, since there were real ones making headlines every day. Instead, pirate comics became the dominant popular cultural forcefulness. The most pregnant of these is Tim Blake Nelson's Det. Looking Glass, whose creepy total-face mask and Rorschach-esque monotone during interrogations are sure to make him a fan favorite. We have more on Looking Drinking glass right hither.

The Latin call and response that ends Judd's meeting with the police comes from Roman poet Juvenal's Satires . Information technology'southward substantially "who watches the watchers" or "who will watch the watchmen." The response seems to be "the watchmen." As in "we take care of our own."

– There'due south a crimson phone on Judd's desk, which may or may not be a niggling nod to the 1966 Batman Idiot box series. Then again, sometimes a scarlet phone is just a red phone. Simply there's also a copy of Under the Hood past Hollis Mason. Nether the Hood was the autobiography of the original Nite Owl, several chapters of which are "excerpted" in the Watchmen graphic novel.

– The beating administered to the 7th Cavalry suspect behind closed doors is reminiscent of the jailbreak scene in the Watchmen book, where Rorschach excuses himself to the bathroom to take out an enemy. We don't run across the activity, only the blood seeping out from under the door.

– Angela calling her bakery "Milk and Hanoi" is mayhap a reference to how much Vietnamese culture has been integrated into American life in the world of Watchmen . Here, the US won the Vietnam War and eventually annexed Vietnam as the 51st country.

Oh, and the code to enter that undercover room in the baker? 1985. The twelvemonth the book took place in, and also the year the squid killed millions in New York City.

– Angela walks past a man carrying a "The Future is Vivid" sign. Walter Kovacs used to walk effectually with a "The End is Nigh" sign when he wasn't wearing a mask, trenchcoat, and fedora and issuing brutal justice as Rorschach.

Rorschach and the 7th Kavalry

– Speaking of Rorschach, he is the inspiration for the 7th Kavalry, a reactionary, right-wing group of white supremacists here who have adopted his mask and mode of spoken language. The end of the Watchmen book saw Rorschach mail his journal off to his favorite conservative publication, the New Frontiersman . It turns out that they did indeed publish excerpts from the book, just New Frontiersman had about as much brownie in that earth as InfoWars does here, and then nobody believed it…except for paranoid, racist kooks. Wow, this show IS realistic!

Of course, there is also a real Army regiment called the 7th Cavalry, i that was commanded by General George A. Custer, hence the "Picayune Big Horn" pager messages to report 7th Kavalry activity. Information technology might also explain the whole "terminal stand up" mentality and why these guys are and so ready to die rather than become captured.

We wrote more than about the 7th Kavalry and Rorschach connections right here.

The suicide by poisonous substance pill of that 1 seventh Kavalry member does seem to accept echoes of the (staged) bump-off attempt on Adrian Veidt in the Watchmen book, right down to Angela trying to trounce that pill right out of his head.

– The expanse of Tulsa with the highest concentration of white supremacists is known equally "Nixonville." Nixon had some troubling views on race that have been recently compounded and brought back to light by the sound of an awful phone call between him and and then-time to come President Ronald Reagan.

– In the 7th Kavalry hideout, where they're harvesting watch batteries for some nefarious purpose, there's a affiche featuring Minutemen hero Dollar Bill. Dollar Bill was an extremely modest character in the original Watchmen book, a higher athlete from Kansas who was recruited by a bank chain to exist their very own superhero, in what was essentially a glorified PR stunt. He died while trying to cease a bank robbery when his cape got defenseless in the revolving doors and he was shot to death. The poster in question is a racist depiction of a white hero (Dollar Bill) beating upward on a cartoonish black criminal.

– The idea that the 7th Kavalry are harvesting watch batteries to create some kind of "cancer flop" plays with how Doctor Manhattan'south presence was linked with cancer in people who associated with him in the book. As it was revealed by HBO's supplemental materials for the series, specifically the FBI memo "The Computer and You," anything that was considered "Manhattan tech" is also considered a cancer risk, and hence discontinued. This was a smear on Doctor Manhattan by Adrian Veidt as part of his broader program to bring most globe peace by any means necessary.

Nite Owl

– The police plainly utilise the same applied science for their aeriform vehicles as the 2d Nite Owl'south ARCHIE Owlships, correct downwardly to the pushbutton operating system for weaponry like an aerial flamethrower. Because that Dreiberg went into hiding at the end of the original Watchmen with a new identity, it'south not articulate how local constabulary forces would accept ended up with this kind of hardware, but information technology turns out that Dreiberg and Laurie Blake were busted in 1995 for violating the Keene Act.

– Judd's incongruous "yous ok?" followed by everyone sharing a express joy as the camera tilts upward to the heaven faintly echoes Dan Dreiberg and Laurie Juspeczyk laughing at a nighttime joke at Rorschach'southward expense in the starting time chapter of the Watchmen book.

– They fifty-fifty manage to squeeze in "Unforgettable" (the Dinah Washington version) which was the commercial jingle used to sell Adrian Veidt's "Nostalgia" perfume line in the volume. Yes, information technology was also used in the movie, simply nosotros won't hold that against it.

– The episode ends with a drib of claret on Judd's bluecoat, echoing the "minutes to midnight" claret blueprint on the Comedian'due south bluecoat from the first issue of the original Watchmen .